Brian Masse

Masse was born in Windsor, Ontario. He graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1991. He also completed coursework for a Master of Arts degree at the University of Windsor, but left prior to submitting his thesis.^[2]

During the 1990s, he was a job developer for the Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities and a program coordinator for the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County.^[3]

Masse was elected for Ward 2 of the Windsor City Council in 1997 and was re-elected in 2000. In 1998, he played a prominent role in preventing a rock-crushing operation from opening in the Wellington Avenue area.^[4]

In May 2001, the Windsor City Council unanimously approved Masse's motion to prevent school boards from selling vacant property lots at the highest market value. His purpose was to dissuade boards from closing schools, though some criticized the motion as working against taxpayer interests.^[5] Masse later called for a referendum on a proposed new arena project, but this was not accepted by council.^[6]

Masse is married to Terry Chow, with whom he has two children.^[7]

Masse joined the federal New Democratic Party in 1997 and was first elected to the Canadian Parliament in a by-election held on May 13, 2002.^[8] The election was called after the resignation of Herb Gray, a long-time Liberal cabinet minister who had been a member of Parliament (MP) since 1962. Masse won the NDP nomination without opposition and defeated Liberal candidate Richard Pollock by 2,477 votes to win the seat.^[9] He was re-elected by a greater margin in the 2004 general election. Masse's success in 2002 was partly due to support from Joe Comartin, a fellow Windsor New Democrat who was elected to the House of Commons in the 2000 federal election.^[10] In 2002–03, Masse supported Comartin's bid for the NDP leadership.^[11]

Masse served as the NDP critic for Auto Policy, Canada Border Services, and Customs in the 38th Canadian Parliament. He also became a member of the newly formed all-party "Border Caucus", examining aspects of Canada-U.S. trade relations.^[12] In 2004, he introduced a motion to restrict pharmaceutical companies from renewing their patent protection.^[13]

During his first campaign for the House of Commons, the Windsor Star ran an editorial opposing him as "a bench-warmer, a yes-man, a political careerist".^[14] Two years later, however, a Star columnist wrote that Masse had "vastly exceeded expectations and quickly developed into an able, hard-working representative who has stayed on top of riding issues."^[15]

Masse was re-elected in the 2006 federal election with an increased majority over Liberal Werner Keller. He served as NDP Deputy Industry Critic. After the election, Masse and Comartin spoke out against the provincial NDP's decision to remove Canadian Auto Workers leader Buzz Hargrove from the party.^[16]

Masse has criticized Industry Minister Maxime Bernier's plans to deregulate Canada's telecommunications market and ease restrictions on foreign ownership, arguing that the reforms could result in a small number of companies controlling the Canadian industry.^[17]

Since 2015, Masse has sat on the NDP frontbench as the critic for Innovation, Science and Economic Development.^[18]

Masse was re-elected in the 2019 Canadian federal election and the 2021 Canadian federal election, on both occasions finishing ahead of former Liberal MPP Sandra Pupatello.^[19][20]

In the 2025 Canadian federal election, he was unseated by Conservative candidate Harb Gill.^[21] He offered to endorse defeated Conservative MP Rick Perkins in the election.^[22]